Catching Up

Okay okay. We’re sorry! We know we’re more than a little behind. This journey so far has taken us to so many amazing places, and we’ve been so busy making memories and living life, that we’ve totally blown it on getting this blog some momentum. And for many of our friends and family out there, small instagram posts here and there just aren’t going to cut it.

The truth is, we have so many things that we want to share with you and involve you in, and once you get a little behind, it becomes even more daunting to try to get back up to speed. Nevertheless, that’s the plan here, and hopefully we’ll be back on track soon!

Let’s start with the map!

When we last caught up, we had just left Yellowstone National Park in Montana. (Man, a lot has happened since then!)

From Gardiner, Montana, we traveled north to Saint Mary, Montana (Glacier National Park’s east entrance), to Canmore and Banff in Alberta, Canada, to Salmon Arm, British Columbia, to Seattle, to Portland, to Medford, to Lake Tahoe, and finally to where we’re sitting now in Bakersfield, California. Oh dear, now that I’ve typed that out, I’ve realized that I really am behind!

So what’s been going on?

Other than the obvious “a whole lot!”, we’ve been up to quiet a bit on our journey thus far. Baron has started second grade – his and mama’s first year of homeschool! – and it’s been going so well! Obviously there are adjustments to be made, and Yvette has been so encouraged by friends and family that have been there.

Work has been encouraging thus far, as our steady clients have not only been accepting of our nomadic little agency, they’ve actually been quite supportive and embracing of it! We’ve even picked up a couple new clients along the way that have given us quite a bit of hope for the future of this little adventure.

As for the adventure itself, it’s going very well. We had our first real hiccup with the camper as we were leaving our camp in Yosemite. We typically check our tires prior to leaving campgrounds, just to make sure we’re in good shape for the drive ahead. This time, we had a very low tire, and after filling it back up, realized we had a nail in it and had to change it out. After finding out we sold our lug wrench with Jack Sr, we had to ask our neighbor for help. He was not only willing to loan us a wrench, he came out and helped change the tire!

That is definitely something we’ve noticed in our travels so far – RVers are so often more than willing to go out of their way to help, offer advice, and encourage other RVers on the road.

What has been the biggest challenge so far?

On most of our drive days, we like to offer up the opportunity to ask us questions about full-time travel life on our Instagram. Many of the questions center around challenges, and the things we’ve learned so far. The question we get the most is what’s the most challenging or difficult aspect of this lifestyle.

Practically, the answer is pretty simple – towing and parking a 20+ foot truck and 32+ foot trailer around the country provides a litany of challenges on its own. Every campground, every gas station (or fuel actually, as Jack Jr is a diesel!), and every highway has its own unique obstacles. Thankfully, the more we do it, the easier it has become. By the time we’re done, we’ll hopefully have ranked up from beginner to novice!

On the other hand though, I think the bigger challenges relate to community in a bunch of different ways. We love spending time with our friends and family, and just generally love being a part of a community that loves us and we can love back. Working out how to devote time to a community while remaining mobile is a much bigger mental challenge than anything else we’ve faced. So our next plan is to convince some friends to drop everything and join us out here on the road! 😂

What’s Next?

After a few weeks of go go go, we’re looking forward to a bit of a slower September and October. We’re here in Bakersfield, California visiting family (Harlan’s cousins) for a couple of weeks, then we’re headed to LA for a couple of weeks. Beyond that, it’s Vegas, all over Utah, Phoenix, New Mexico, and some Texas before making it back to DFW for the holidays. We’re just enjoying our time together as a family and looking forward to the days ahead.

Thank you all for following along in our journey. We wanted to at least get a post out there with some updates to this point, and work on really catching up with things soon. We’ll add some posts in the near future with more photos of our stops along the way.

Until then…much love from us.